BBC denies endangering students with undercover visit to North Korea | Media | The Guardian BBC denies endangering students with undercover visit to North Korea Panorama reporter accompanied London School of Economics students to communist country to carry out secret filming The Panorama reporter John Sweeney, who joined LSE students on a field trip to North Korea. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe Press Association Sunday 14 April 2013 07.55 EDT First published on Sunday 14 April 2013 07.55 EDT Close This article is 3 years old The BBC has denied claims that it put students from a London university at risk when an undercover journalist accompanied them on a field trip to North Korea . John Sweeney, a reporter for the Panorama programme, is said to have joined the student group from the London School of Economics (LSE) on a visit to the communist country so he could carry out secret filming. The LSE says the students "were not given enough information to enable informed consent", and were "endangered", the BBC reported .

The LSE's director, Prof Craig Calhoun, accused the corporation of "lies and deception from the outset" and of putting the students at risk, telling Sky News it was "unwilling to take responsibility" for the risks it had caused. But the BBC denied giving students insufficient information about the plans for secret reporting. In a statement, a Panorama spokeswoman said: "We recognised that because it could increase the risks of the trip, the students should be told in advance that a journalist intended to travel with them, in order to enable the students to make their decision about whether they wanted to proceed. "They were given this information, and were reminded of it again, in time to have been able to change their plans if they wanted to. The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist as part of their group. "This included a warning about the risk of arrest and detention and that they might not be allowed to return to North Korea in the future." Calhoun said the students acknowledged that they were told a journalist would be accompanying them, but said they were not told who, or that two other journalists would be filming.

He told Sky News: "The school was not informed at all in any way about this. The BBC chose to present this as though the reporters were LSE students or staff. "The BBC chose also to make this appear as if it was an LSE trip, when it was not." He added: "I would like the BBC to pull the programme so that it is not showing footage of our students and creating dangers." An email sent to LSE students and staff said university authorities did not have advance knowledge of the visit, the BBC reported. The email said: "At no point prior to the trip was it made clear to the students that a BBC team of three had planned to use the trip as cover for a major documentary to be shown on Panorama.

"It is LSE's view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea." On its website Panorama says Sweeney spent eight days undercover in the "most rigidly controlled nation on Earth", in which he "witnesses a landscape bleak beyond words, a people brainwashed for three generations and a regime happy to give the impression of marching towards Armageddon". Writing on Twitter , Sweeney said he disputed the LSE statement. Six students back BBC Panorama documentary and accuse university of exposing them to greater danger by going public.

By Josh Halliday Published: 17 Apr 2013 Head of news says Tony Hall was involved in discussions over undercover Panorama journalists embedded with LSE students Published: 15 Apr 2013 Broadcaster rejects LSE chair's request to shelve film, calling it an 'important piece of public interest journalism' Published: 14 Apr 2013 Undercover BBC Trip to North Korea Is Criticized - The New York Times The New York Times Europe |BBC Tactics in Covering North Korea Are Faulted Search Continue reading the main story As tensions escalated between North Korea and the world late last month, a small group of students from the prestigious London School of Economics crossed the border into the reclusive country for what was described by organizers as a government-sanctioned “week of sight seeing, meeting with ministers, government officials” and academics. But among the students, the university announced in an outraged statement over the weekend, were three BBC journalists filming an undercover documentary. The BBC, the university said, “deliberately misled” the group to underplay the scope of the reporting, placed the students in danger and jeopardized its work in politically fraught nations.

It demanded that the BBC pull the film, set for broadcast on Monday, and issue an apology. The BBC declined, saying that the documentary on a country so few people understand was in the public interest. And in a statement released Sunday, the BBC disputed the university’s account. It said the students had been told that a journalist would be present “and were reminded of it again, in time to have been able to change their plans if they wanted to.” But the BBC, which the university says actually sent three journalists, also later acknowledged that it had not told the students of the nature of the documentary, in what it characterized as a bid to keep them safe if the journalists were found out and the students were questioned about what they knew. Continue reading the main story Although at least some tourists are now allowed into the police state, reporters need government permission to work there and are assigned minders. In 2009 two American journalists, Laura Ling, then 32, and Euna Lee, then 36, were arrested and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after being accused of illegally entering North Korean territory while researching a report on women and human trafficking.

They were spared the prospect of years in a brutal gulag when former President Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang and negotiated their release four months later. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Alex Peters-Day, the lead student representative for the university, said Sunday that students had received e-mails from the North Korean government on their return saying that it had learned that reporters were with the group and was very angry. Ms. Peters-Day disputed the BBC version of events, saying the students had not been given enough information to give informed consent. Craig Calhoun, the university’s director, said in a post on Twitter that the trip “was not an official LSE trip.” He said the BBC had essentially recruited some students in a university-affiliated student international relations group, the Grimshaw Club , and had “passed it off” as a student trip. Ms. Peters-Day said that students had received an e-mail suggesting the trip from one of the BBC journalists, Tomiko Sweeney, who is married to the lead reporter on the documentary, John Sweeney, and is a former LSE student. Mr. Sweeney did not respond to a message left on his cellphone, but said, in a BBC radio interview and on Twitter that he disputed the school’s allegations.

There was no answer at a London number listed for the couple. Ceri Thomas, the BBC’s head of news, said Sunday that though the trip had been organized by Mr. Sweeney’s wife, it “was going to happen before the BBC got involved.” The students were warned of the dangers in two meetings in London and again in Beijing, he said. “The only people we deceived,” he said of the documentary, “was the North Korean government. And if the students were in on that deception they were in a worse position.” The public interest argument for the documentary was “overwhelming,” Mr. Thomas said. North Korea is “a country that is hidden from view, where we suspect that brutal things are happening, one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet which is threatening nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula.” The standoff marks the second time this year that the world’s delicate diplomatic dance with North Korea over its escalating nuclear threats has been disturbed by a television crew. In late February, the magazine Vice sent the former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang to meet the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, an avid basketball fan, for a documentary series it is producing in collaboration with HBO.

That heavily covered visit, after the country’s latest nuclear test in defiance of world powers, allowed the young Mr. Kim to present himself — at least to his people — as someone who is respected outside his country. The BBC’s Mr. Sweeney is a veteran television reporter famed for his tangles with the Church of Scientology. The North Korean guides, the university said, called him “professor.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The documentary, titled “North Korea Undercover” and part of the BBC’s flagship Panorama series, shows a “landscape bleak beyond words, a people brainwashed for three generations and a regime happy to give the impression of marching towards Armageddon,” according to the BBC’s Web site. Unlike Mr. Rodman, Mr. Sweeney appears not to have gained access to the North Korean inner circle. Stephen J. A. Ward, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, expressed surprise that the BBC had chosen to report the story as it did, though he acknowledged that undercover journalism is a widely accepted practice in Britain. “You have to be able to say ‘there is no other way we can get this story,’ and that you’re not putting other people in danger,” he said.

The Associated Press has had a bureau in Pyongyang since 2012. Universities UK, a body that represents British universities, criticized the BBC on Sunday. “The way that this BBC investigation was conducted might not only have put students’ safety at risk,” Nicola Dandridge, the group’s chief executive, told reporters, “but may also have damaged our universities’ reputations overseas.” Late last year, the BBC’s ethical standards were questioned when it emerged that one of its presenters, Jimmy Savile, had faced accusations of sexual abuse spanning his long career. The BBC had declined to broadcast a news investigation into the accusations, but did broadcast two glowing tributes to Mr. Savile after his death in 2011. The London School of Economics became embroiled in difficulties of its own with an oppressive regime when it emerged in 2011 that it had close links with the government of Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, including accepting training contracts worth millions and a donation from the dictator’s son Seif al-Islam Qaddafi. It eventually diverted the money to a scholarship fund for North African students.

A version of this article appears in print on April 15, 2013, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: BBC Tactics In Covering North Korea Are Faulted. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Undercover BBC Reporters Join Student Trip For Covert North Korea Story (VIDEO) | The Huffington Post Undercover BBC Reporters Join Student Trip For Covert North Korea Story (VIDEO) 04/14/2013 05:38 am ET | Updated Jun 14, 2013 200 * BBC reporter posed as a PhD student to make film * London university says it put students at risk (Adds comment from journalist, BBC head of news) By Michael Holden LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - A leading British university criticised the BBC on Sunday for arranging an academic trip to North Korea to make an undercover documentary, saying it had put students who were unaware of the plans in danger. The London School of Economics (LSE) said three BBC journalists - including the respected reporter John Sweeney - joined a student society trip at the end of March, posing as tourists to make a film about the secretive state.

The university said the students had been told "a journalist" would accompany them, but it had not been made clear the BBC's aim was to use the visit to record an undercover film for "Panorama", a current affairs programme. "This was not an official LSE trip," Craig Calhoun, the Director of the LSE, wrote on Twitter. "Non-students & BBC organised it, used the society to recruit some students, & passed it off." Tensions on the Korean peninsula have escalated in recent weeks, with North Korea threatening nuclear war against the United States and South Korea. Alex Peters-Day, general secretary of the LSE's student union, told Sky News the students were only told of the BBC's intentions to make an undercover film at a very late stage, with one saying she was only informed when they were on the plane to North Korea. She said the BBC had used the students as "human shields". The university said Sweeney, who graduated from the LSE in 1980, had posed as a history PhD student at the university to gain entry to the country even though he currently had no connections with the institution.

"BBC staff have admitted that the group was deliberately misled to the involvement of the BBC in the visit," the LSE said in an email to staff and students released to the media. "It is the LSE's view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea." "STUDENTS WARNED" It said the LSE's chairman had asked the BBC to pull the documentary, which is due to be shown on Monday, but the broadcaster's director-general had refused. Sweeney admitted he had lied to the North Korean government agency that helped organise the visit, but defended the BBC's actions. "What the LSE has been doing is putting out stuff which is factually inaccurate in our view," Sweeney told BBC TV. "They're putting words into the students' mouths.

The majority of students support this programme." Ceri Thomas, the Head of BBC News Programmes, said the students had been told twice about the possible dangers of having a journalist on the trip, but were not informed about the broadcaster's plans to make an undercover film because it would have put them in a worse position had the BBC team been found out. "They had the information we think to make informed consent," he told BBC TV. He said he could not categorically rule out students' lives were put at risk but stated there was an "overwhelming" public interest in making the documentary. "It's vital that we get in... because the public in this country on mainstream television on tomorrow night has a very, very strong interest ... particularly at this moment in seeing what's going on inside North Korea," he said. Panorama's website said Sweeney had spent eight days undercover "inside the most rigidly-controlled nation on Earth". "Travelling from the capital Pyongyang to the countryside beyond and to the De-Militarised Zone on the border with South Korea, Sweeney witnesses a landscape bleak beyond words, a people brainwashed for three generations and a regime happy to give the impression of marching towards Armageddon," it said.

The LSE said aspects of North Korea were legitimate objects of study in several academic disciplines but said the BBC may have seriously damaged the university's reputation, and jeopardised future visits to North Korea and other countries. "BBC story put LSE students at danger but seems to have found no new information and only shown what North Korea wants tourists to see," Calhoun wrote. (Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) Also on HuffPost: BBC apologises for 'serious failing' in Panorama's undercover North Korea documentary - Telegraph BBC BBC apologises for 'serious failing' in Panorama's undercover North Korea documentary BBC apologises to the London School of Economics for Panorama documentary in which presenter John Sweeney went undercover Presenter John Sweeney posed as a PhD student to join the eight-day London School of Economics trip Photo: (Alamy) By Anita Singh , Arts and Entertainment Editor 2:31PM GMT 17 Mar 2014 The BBC has apologised over a “serious failing” in the making of a Panorama programme that used a student trip to North Korea as cover for secret filming. Presenter John Sweeney posed as a PhD student to join the eight-day London School of Economics trip.

The tour was led by Sweeney’s wife, Tomiko Newson, who was chairman of the university’s Student International Relations Society and also working for Panorama. Students were kept in the dark about the risks involved, according to a damning report by the BBC Trust. They were unaware that Sweeney, Newson and an undercover Panorama cameraman planned to separate from the group if they feared detection – leaving the students to fend for themselves even if detained by the authorities. Related Articles 14 May 2007 The resulting footage was broadcast in the April 2013 programme Panorama: North Korea Undercover. The LSE and a father of one student made a series of complaints to the BBC, and the programme was investigated by the Trust’s editorial standards committee. The BBC has now written letters of apology to both after the Trust ruled the programme breached editorial guidelines. In their report, the Trust said: “There was a real public interest in making this programme in North Korea but, in the Trust’s view, the BBC failed to ensure that all the young adults Panorama travelled with were sufficient aware of any potential risks to enable them to give informed consent.

“This was a serious failing, and the BBC is right to apologise to the complainants.” The report found that Sweeney contacted the Panorama editor in January 2013 to talk about a documentary on North Korea. A week later, Newson approached the editor to say she was planning a student trip to the country. After students signed up for the trip, Newsom and a member of the Panorama team held a meeting in a London pub where they mentioned that a journalist would be joining the party. The BBC claims the students were also briefed about the risks of detention, deportation and arrest, but several of them disputed this. The Trust report criticised Panorama for holding an informal meeting in a noisy pub instead of hosting “an informed discussion about the risks of the trip and whether they were worth taking”. It also said Panorama lacked an exit strategy for the students and said the students were unaware that the BBC team had a plan to separate from the group if detected. That would have entailed Newson deserting her charges and “the students would have been left, in effect, as a group of young adults from a variety of different countries, all personally responsible for trying to extricate themselves from possible detention”.

The BBC said it did not want to tell the students too much because it wanted to afford them “plausible deniability” in the event that they were questioned by the authorities. In its ruling, the Trust also concluded it was “inappropriate” for Panorama to use the LSE’s address for visa applications without the university's consent and had risked harm to the LSE's reputation. Sweeney used the address of the history department in his application, while the cameraman gave an address for LSE halls of residence. Responding to the ruling, the BBC said it accepted that handling of the project “fell short in a number of areas” but maintained there was strong public interest in commissioning and broadcasting the programme. The father who complained to the BBC said after the ruling: "I am pleased that the Trust has now found what the LSE, my daughter and I already knew: that the BBC acted inappropriately in a number of respects relating to this trip. "When news of BBC involvement in the North Korea trip emerged, I was very concerned that the BBC had so obviously risked the lives of these students in an ill-conceived scheme of questionable journalistic value.

"My daughter was likewise deeply troubled by the impact this secretly filmed programme may have had on the North Korean guides and their families. Each were decent,ordinary people trying to conduct their lives under Kim Jong-Un's repressive regime. "It is now clear the BBC failed the students, who were unwitting human fodder used to fulfil John Sweeney and his wife's personal ambition to film inside North Korea. We are all extremely fortunate that everyone returned safely." "Absurdly, the footage from North Korea used in the broadcast added next to nothing to the public's understanding of the situation inside North Korea, given the tourist access was so tightly stage-managed by the regime." His daughter's name has not been disclosed. Not every student on the trip felt they had been misled. Hoe-Yeong Loke, an LSE alumnus, said she was "baffled by the apology which I neither needed nor asked for", and said five other students had no objection to the Panorama broadcast. BBC denies deceiving students in undercover North Korea trip – Channel 4 News Share on Twitter John Sweeney, a reporter for the Panorama programme, posed as a PhD student to gain entry to the communist country in order to carry out secret filiming.

With foreign journalists barred from North Korea , Mr Sweeney spent seight days undercover to see “the true North Korea”. The London School of Economics (LSE) said the school authorities had “no knowledge of the trip or of its planning” and said the students “were not given enough information to enable informed consent”, and were “endangered”. It has asked the BBC to cancel the programme, due to air on Monday night. But the BBC has refused to drop the Panorama report and has denied giving students insufficient information about the plans for secret reporting. BBC News’ head of programmes Ceri Thomas said: “I would say that the only people we deceived in the making of this film was the North Korean government and we did that because we thought it was a necessary condition to get in to this country which is hidden from view and is absolutely essential to world events at the moment.” The BBC has agreed to pixelate the images of the three students who have complained. Cover story According to the LSE, Mr Sweeney’s wife Tomiko organised the student trip through the university’s oldest student society, the Grimshaw Club – one of the few LSE societies to organise international student study trips.

The LSE said the BBC used the 10-person group as a cover for a trip that could have had dire consequences – claiming that if Mr Sweeney had been caught they party could have found themselves in solitary confinement in a North Korean prison. Alex Peters-Day, the general secretary of the Grimshaw Club, said: “An LSE alum told us about the trip and we advertised as it an opportunity to our mailing list and our Facebook page that may be of interest to our members; but we at no point had any organisational involvement with the trip. “In other words, there was no institutional involvement on our part whatsoever and the trip participants were aware of that.” The LSE said that the students were not told prior to the trip that three BBC journalists would be joining them. The school’s director Professor Craig Calhoun said on Twitter: “BBC story put LSE students at danger but seems to have found no new information and only shown what North Korea wants tourists to see.” Prof Calhoun, accused the corporation of “lies and deception from the outset” and of putting the students at risk, telling Sky News it was “unwilling to take responsibility” for the risks it has caused.

The LSE’s student newspaper, The Beaver , quotes one student who went on the trip, who wished to remain anonymous, as saying: “We were not made aware of the presence of several BBC journalists at the time of the flight to Pyongyang. We were led to believe that John Sweeney was a history professor, although it was later implied that he was not a professor at the LSE.” BBC denial In a statement, a Panorama spokeswoman said: “We recognised that because it could increase the risks of the trip, the students should be told in advance that a journalist intended to travel with them, in order to enable the students to make their decision about whether they wanted to proceed. “They were given this information, and were reminded of it again, in time to have been able to change their plans if they wanted to. “The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist as part of their group. “This included a warning about the risk of arrest and detention and that they might not be allowed to return to North Korea in the future.” Prof Calhoun said all the students acknowledged that they were told a journalist would be accompanying the trip, but said they were not told who, or that two other journalists would be filming.

He told Sky News: “The school was not informed at all in any way about this. The BBC chose to present this has though the reporters were LSE students or staff… “The BBC chose also to make this appear as if it was an LSE trip, when it was not.” He added: “I would like the BBC to pull the programme so that it is not showing footage of our students and creating dangers.” An email sent to LSE students and staff said university authorities did not have advance knowledge of the visit. The email said: “At no point prior to the trip was it made clear to the students that a BBC team of three had planned to use the trip as cover for a major documentary to be shown on Panorama.

“It is LSE’s view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea.” On its website Panorama says Mr Sweeney went undercover in the “most rigidly-controlled nation on Earth”, in which he “witnesses a landscape bleak beyond words, a people brainwashed for three generations and a regime happy to give the impression of marching towards Armageddon.” Writing in the Mail on Sunday , he said he found the regime “a more frightening from Saddam’s Iraq”. In the piece he said he travelled with “a group of holidaymakers”. On Twitter, Mr Sweeney said: “The LSE put out a statement which we dispute. We did go to North Korea Undercover.

The North Korean agency unhappy.” LSE anger at BBC Panorama over North Korea trip - BBC News BBC News LSE anger at BBC Panorama over North Korea trip 14 April 2013 Close share panel Media captionAlex Peters-Day, LSE Students Union: "Students were lied to, they weren't able to give their consent" The London School of Economics (LSE) and its students' union have demanded the BBC withdraw Monday's Panorama programme about North Korea. The LSE said Panorama reporter John Sweeney posed as one of its professors on a study trip in order to film undercover in the country. The union's Alex Peters-Day said the BBC used students "as a human shield". Sweeney said the students were told a journalist was with them but that the LSE was not as it was not an LSE trip. 'Nazi state' Media captionPanorama reporter John Sweeney: "All of them were told twice that a journalist was coming" Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme, Sweeney said: "For the LSE to put words into the mouths of those LSE students... is extraordinary. For them to say kill this programme - that feels entirely wrong.

"What the LSE is saying we dispute. I can't talk for those students - they are grown-up, they are brave and good people. "All of those students could have dobbed me in. They didn't, the majority of these students support this programme." Sweeney spent eight days undercover inside North Korea for the programme. He travelled with his wife and a cameraman. Sweeney described North Korea as a "Nazi state" that practised the "most extreme form of censorship". He added: "It's more like Hitler's Germany than any other state in this world right now. It's extraordinarily scary, dark and evil." It was not the BBC's place to make decisions on behalf of the students on the trip, nor was it the BBC's place to put at risk all those within the school Alex Peters-Day, LSE Students' Union But the LSE students' union general secretary, Ms Peters-Day - who was not on the trip - told the BBC News channel: "One of the students made it absolutely clear that she was not made aware of what happened.

"For us, this is a matter of student welfare - students were lied to, they weren't able to give their consent." She said all LSE's future research was "now at risk". "I think the trip was organised by the BBC as potentially a ruse for them to get into North Korea and that's disgraceful. "They've used students essentially as a human shield in this situation." In an email sent to LSE students and staff, the university said: "It is LSE's view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea. "While this particular trip was run in the name of a student society, the nature of LSE's teaching and research means that aspects of North Korea are legitimate objects of study in several of our academic disciplines.

"The BBC's actions may do serious damage to LSE's reputation for academic integrity and may have seriously compromised the future ability of LSE students and staff to undertake legitimate study of North Korea, and very possibly of other countries where suspicion of independent academic work runs high." 'Full apology' It said the LSE was "fully supportive of the principle of investigative journalism in the public interest" but could not condone the use of its name, or the use of its students, "as cover for such activities". It also said two other people working for the BBC also went on the trip. "At no point prior to the trip was it made clear to the students that a BBC team of three had planned to use the trip as cover for a major documentary to be shown on Panorama," it added. The LSE said BBC director general Lord Hall refused its request to withdraw the programme and "issue a full apology to LSE for the actions of BBC staff in using the school and its good reputation as a means of deception".

The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist BBC spokesman A student who went on the trip, wishing to remain anonymous, told the Beaver that "we were not made aware of the presence of several BBC journalists at the time of the flight to Pyongyang. We were led to believe that John Sweeney was a history professor, although it was later implied that he was not a professor at the LSE." Also on Twitter, Craig Calhoun, the director of the LSE, said the "BBC story put LSE students at danger but seems to have found no new information and only shown what North Korea wants tourists to see". A BBC spokesman said: "We recognised that because it could increase the risks of the trip, the students should be told in advance that a journalist intended to travel with them, in order to enable the students to make their decision about whether they wanted to proceed. "They were given this information, and were reminded of it again, in time to have been able to change their plans if they wanted to. The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist as part of their group.

"This included a warning about the risk of arrest and detention and that they might not be allowed to return to North Korea in the future." Panorama: North Korea Undercover can be seen on BBC One at 20:30 BST on Monday. BBC Korea visit 'put students at risk' Email a friend THE BBC is coming under fire for putting students at risk by sending an undercover reporter with them on a trip to North Korea. The London School of Economics says BBC's decision to send three TV journalists to the secretive communist state in March to shoot a documentary without governmental permission to work there by posing as members of a student trip could have caused grave trouble for the pupils, if the deception had been uncovered by North Korean authorities. The squabble between two powerful British institutions comes at a time of uncertainty caused by North Korea's bellicose threats to launch a new medium-range missile at its enemies. It brought more unwelcome attention to the BBC, which has faced sustained criticism for its handling of an investigation into alleged child sex abuse committed by the late Jimmy Savile, long a top BBC talk show host. The Panorama documentary on North Korea based on the eight-day trip in March is set to air Monday night.

The BBC has thus far refused the university's plea to keep it off the air to protect the students from possible retribution if their identities are revealed on the show. The broadcaster said three students who have asked to be removed from the show will have their images blurred so they cannot be identified. The trip was not organised by LSE but by a students' society known as the Grimshaw Club. University officials said they did not know about the BBC arrangement and would not have approved it if they had known about BBC's plans. The BBC's John Sweeney, who LSE officials say posed as a post-graduate LSE student, said Sunday it was "entirely wrong" for the university to try to prevent the broadcast. He said all of the students had been told about the potential risk and had agreed to allow the journalists to join the trip, adding that all were over 18 years of age and capable of making their own decisions. A BBC story about the trip that the network filed online on Sunday said Sweeney and a two-person crew that included his wife spent "eight days undercover" in North Korea.

LSE student union general secretary Alex Peters-Day said on Sunday that the students were lied to and that at least one of the students on the eight-day trip was not told in advance of the journalists' participation. "This is a student welfare issue," she told a BBC interviewer. "We don't know what could have happened to those students and, truthfully, neither does the BBC. It's absolutely disgraceful that he (Sweeney) put students in that position. It's incredibly reckless." She said Mr Sweeney was being "disingenuous" by citing free-speech concerns as justification for putting students in danger. LSE blamed BBC for not being forthcoming about its reporting plans in North Korea. In the past, journalists have at times been detained for working without authorisation in North Korea, where foreign reporting crews usually have to operate under strict governmental supervision.

In an email sent to staff and students, the university complains that the BBC program was produced "using as cover a visit to North Korean which took place from 23-30 March in the name of the Grimshaw Club, a student society at LSE." BBC News Head of News Programs Ceri Thomas said on a BBC News program on Sunday that the students were given the information needed to give informed consent to the increased risk of traveling with journalists who did not have authorisation to work in North Korea. He said, however, that the students were told roughly a month before the trip that there would be "a journalist" travelling with them but were later told, once they were en route to North Korea, that there would be three journalists who would be conducting undercover filming for TV. Ms Thomas said the students may have been under the impression that a print journalist, not a three-person TV crew, was going to be involved. He said BBC would air the documentary despite LSE's concerns because of high public interest in the show. "It is disappointing for us that LSE has chosen to make this public," he said. "We would have kept them out of this altogether.

They could have avoided the publicity, and we think that would have lowered the reputational risk." He said BBC executives felt that if the deception was discovered the students likely would have been deported, but he admitted he could not "categorically" rule out the possibility that their lives might have been at risk. BBC press officials said senior executives would not discuss the matter but might issue further statements. The BBC's action sparked concerns that the use of a British academic research trip as a cover for a clandestine TV reporting venture might undermine the ability of researchers to operate overseas. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said BBC must understand how its actions might hurt research institutions. She said the BBC may have not only put students in harm's way but also damaged the reputations of British universities. "We regret the BBC's approach," she said. A BBC story about the trip says Mr Sweeney and a two-person crew that included his wife spent "eight days undercover" in North Korea.

BBC accused of putting students at risk after journalists infiltrate university trip to North Korea - Telegraph BBC BBC accused of putting students at risk after journalists infiltrate university trip to North Korea The BBC is at the centre of a row after a leading university accused it of putting its members at risk by sending a team of undercover Panorama journalists into North Korea as part of a student trip. John Sweeney of Panorama in North Korea Photo: BBC Follow The team of three, which included reporter John Sweeney, travelled to the secretive state last month with members of a London School of Economics student society. The university has said the genuine students on the trip had been “deliberately misled” by the BBC and were put in “serious danger” by the presence of the BBC team. It said Sweeney, who graduated from the university in 1980, had passed himself off as a current PhD student. It has accused the Corporation of taking an “unacceptable” risk. Had the journalists' identity been discovered by the North Korean authorities, the entire group could have been arrested and faced punishment. The journalists travelled to the country with members of the LSE’s Grimshaw Club, which was established in 1923 and is part of the International Relations Department.

While in North Korea, the Panorama team filmed undercover footage that will be broadcast in North Korea Undercover on BBC One on Monday. Related Articles BBC apologises for using students as cover for North Korea documentary 17 Mar 2014 The Corporation has said the programme will go ahead, despite the university asking for it to be withdrawn. It insists students on the trip were aware of the BBC's presence before travelling to North Korea. This weekend, LSE officials sent a letter to all members of the university, deploring the tactics used by the BBC to get its journalists into North Korea. It said: “The School wishes to alert all staff and students to a serious development which may affect them personally in future. “This relates to the conduct of the BBC in respect of a Panorama programme entitled North Korea Undercover, which is due to be shown next Monday evening, 15 April. “The programme has been produced using as cover a visit to North Korea which took place from 23-30 March 2013 in the name of the Grimshaw Club, a student society at LSE. “The School authorities had no advance knowledge of the trip or of its planning".

The letter said the visiting party included John Sweeney, Alexander Niakaris and Tomiko Sweeney. It went on: "In advance of the trip it was not known to the rest of the party that they were three journalists working for or with the BBC. Their purpose, posing as tourists, was to film and record covertly during the visit in order to produce the Panorama programme." It added: “LSE’s chief concerns are twofold. First, at no point prior to the trip was it made clear to the students that a BBC team of three had planned to use the trip as cover for a major documentary to be shown on Panorama. “BBC staff have admitted that the group was deliberately misled as to the involvement of the BBC in the visit. The line used was that “a journalist” would join the visit. “BBC staff have argued that this lack of frankness in denying the genuine members of the group the full details was done for their own benefit in the event of discovery and interrogation by North Korean authorities. “It is LSE’s view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea.

“BBC staff asserted in a meeting with LSE management on 9 April 2013 that the BBC had undertaken its own risk assessment in advance of the trip, which had been approved at the highest level. LSE believes that a reasonable assessor of risk, or indeed any parent contemplating their child’s involvement in such an exercise, could only have concluded that the risks taken were unacceptable. "Our second major concern relates to information that came to light after the meeting on 9 April. This is that John Sweeney gained entry to North Korea by posing as a PhD student. The North Korean authorities allege that he described his occupation for entry control purposes as “LSE student, PhD in History” and gave his address as that of LSE - including a specific office room number which is actually used by a genuine member of LSE staff. "Students report that the North Korean guides during the visit repeatedly addressed him as “Professor” and that he actively went along with that. John Sweeney graduated from LSE in 1980 with a BSc in Government. He is not an LSE student. If he has a PhD in History (or anything else), it is not from LSE.

He does not work for the LSE." The letter stated that the chairman of LSE had asked the BBC to withdraw the programme and issue a "full apology" to the LSE "for the actions of BBC staff in using the School and its good reputation as a means of deception. This endangered the students and could endanger academics in the future". "LSE deeply regrets that, earlier this afternoon, the Director-General of the BBC has refused the Chairman’s request." A student who went on the trip, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Beaver, the university newspaper: “Tomiko Sweeney told us that there would be one journalist. She implied that the journalist would not implicate us in any publication and that the journalist was not her. Furthermore, many among us believed that the journalist was only going to be writing a print article.” Alex Peters-Day, General-Secretary of the LSE Students’ Union said students who had been on the trip had since received "threatening" letters from the North Korean government. She added: “It was not the BBC’s place to make decisions on behalf of the students on the trip, nor was it the BBC’s place to put at risk all those within the School".

“What the BBC did was reckless and ethically reprehensible and I am just glad we are not facing a situation where our students are being detained in North Korea," she said. A BBC spokeswoman said: “We recognised that because it could increase the risks of the trip, the students should be told in advance that a journalist intended to travel with them, in order to enable the students to make their decision about whether they wanted to proceed. "They were given this information, and were reminded of it again, in time to have been able to change their plans if they wanted to. The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist as part of their group. This included a warning about the risk of arrest and detention and that they might not be allowed to return to North Korea in the future.” On its Facebook page, the Grimshaw Club committee issued their own statement. They said: "We were surprised that LSE sent out an email about the North Korea trip before asking us to clarify our involvement in it. We would like at this time to clarify the Grimshaw Club's role in this trip. "We had no organisational responsibilities with this trip, and no Grimshaw resources or branding were used for this trip.

An LSE alum told us about the trip and we advertised as it an opportunity to our mailing list and our Facebook page that may be of interest to our members; but we at no point had any organisational involvement with the trip. In other words, there was no institutional involvement on our part whatsoever and the trip participants were aware of that." On its website, it says it “does not support any religious or political views of its own but attempts to have as broad a spectrum of issues available to its members to facilitate the debate of topics concerning international relations”. Previous trips have seen its members visit New York, Israel, Lebanon, Russia and Hungary. British university, BBC in North Korea row – BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News British university, BBC in North Korea row April 15, 2013, Monday BBC reporter posed as PhD student to make undercover film LONDON: A leading British university criticised the BBC yesterday for arranging an academic trip to North Korea to make an undercover documentary, saying it had put students who were unaware of the plans in danger.

The London School of Economics (LSE) said three BBC journalists – including the respected reporter John Sweeney – joined a student society trip at the end of March, posing as tourists to make a film about the secretive state. The university said the students had been told ‘a journalist’ would accompany them, but it had not been made clear the BBC’s aim was to use the visit to record an undercover film for ‘Panorama’, a current affairs programme. “This was not an official LSE trip,” Craig Calhoun, the director of the LSE, wrote on Twitter. “Non-students BBC organised it, used the society to recruit some students, passed it off.” Tensions in the Korean peninsula have escalated in recent weeks, with North Korea threatening nuclear war against the United States and South Korea. Alex Peters-Day, general secretary of the LSE’s student union, told Sky News the students were only told of the BBC’s intentions at a very late stage, with one saying she was only informed when they were on the plane to North Korea.

The university said Sweeney, who graduated from the LSE in 1980, had posed as a history PhD student at the university to gain entry to the country even though he currently had no connections with the institution. “BBC staff have admitted that the group was deliberately misled to the involvement of the BBC in the visit,” the LSE said in an email to staff and students released to the media. “It is the LSE’s view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea.” It said the LSE’s chairman had asked the BBC to pull the documentary, which is due to be shown on Monday, but the broadcaster’s director-general had refused. “The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist as part of their group,” a BBC spokesman said on its website. “This included a warning about the risk of arrest and detention and that they might not be allowed to return to North Korea in the future.” Sweeney also defended his actions on Twitter. “The LSE put out a statement which we dispute,” he said. “We did go to North Korea Undercover.

The North Korean agency unhappy. LSE students knew and understood what was at stake for them before trip. They consented.” Panorama’s website said Sweeney had spent eight days undercover “inside the most rigidly-controlled nation on Earth”. “Travelling from the capital Pyongyang to the countryside beyond and to the De-Militarised Zone on the border with South Korea, Sweeney witnesses a landscape bleak beyond words, a people brainwashed for three generations and a regime happy to give the impression of marching towards Armageddon,” it said. The LSE said aspects of North Korea were legitimate objects of study in several academic disciplines but said the BBC may have seriously damaged the university’s reputation, and jeopardised future visits to North Korea and other countries. “BBC story put LSE students at danger but seems to have found no new information and only shown what North Korea wants tourists to see,” Calhoun wrote. — Reuters What do you think of this story?

Great (0%) BBC North Korea film 'damages UK's academic reputation' - BBC News BBC News BBC North Korea film 'damages UK's academic reputation' 15 April 2013 Close share panel Media captionReporter John Sweeney spent eight days in North Korea for the programme Universities have accused the BBC of putting the integrity of academics at risk with an edition of Panorama which was filmed secretly in North Korea. Three BBC journalists used a trip by a group of London School of Economics students as cover, without getting their full consent, the LSE has said. Universities UK said the move may have damaged "universities' reputations overseas", which rely on transparency. The BBC said the film was in the public interest and would be aired as planned. The LSE and its students' union have demanded the corporation withdraw the programme, insisting the students were not told there was an undercover team of three or that they were filming a high-profile documentary, and so could not give informed consent. 'Global reputation' Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents 100 institutions, said the BBC needed to understand the concerns of the university sector.

Analysis By Sean CoughlanBBC News education correspondent Academic research is highly globalised, running across conflict zones and political divisions. When modern wars sweep through a country, there can still be rearguards of scholars protecting the remains of centuries before, such as the ancient manuscripts rescued this year in Timbuktu, in Mali. But while diplomats can claim diplomatic status and journalists can hold up a press card, there is no separately defined protected status for academics. They can only rely on a kind of informal neutral status. But there are plenty of blurred boundaries. Not least because knowledge can quite literally be explosive. Overseas students in the UK have to be vetted before they can take "sensitive subjects" on a specified list, designed to stop students being used to obtain technology for nuclear or biological warfare. "The UK's academics have a global reputation, and it is vitally important that they can be trusted and seen to be working in an open and transparent manner," she said.

"The way that this BBC investigation was conducted might not only have put students' safety at risk, but may also have damaged our universities' reputations overseas." Sir Adam Roberts, president of the British Academy, and Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society said the film raised "serious issues" about the credibility and security of UK academics working overseas in highly-sensitive circumstances. Their statement said: "The ability of academics to work, study and carry out research around the world is hugely dependent on trust and respect for their integrity, and it is vital that this trust is not undermined. "While undercover reporting plays an important role in investigative journalism, these issues do not appear to have been properly considered by the BBC in making its risk assessment." Former Labour Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw - a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and a former BBC reporter - said he was "amazed" the corporation had not secured written consent from students on the trip. "I'm also surprised that the LSE's consent wasn't sought, although this wasn't a formal LSE visit," he said. He added that with some students challenging its account, "the BBC must now publish all of the emails and written evidence that it has to support its conjecture that there was full consent".

Risks 'justified' The BBC has defended its actions, saying the film was strongly in the public interest. Head of news programmes Ceri Thomas said the North Korean government was the only party the corporation had deceived. He said the students had been informed of the risks on three separate occasions and authorisation for the trip had gone "right to the top" within the BBC. "We think the risks as we explained them to the students were justified... but had we had any suggestion that lives were at risk... we wouldn't have gone anywhere near this," he said. Media captionAlex Peters-Day, LSE students' union: "Students were lied to, they weren't able to give their consent" The programme, North Korea Undercover, is set to be broadcast amid rising tensions in the region caused by the secretive state testing a nuclear device and missile technology. The BBC said the trip was organised by the wife of Panorama reporter John Sweeney. The couple spent eight days inside the country for the programme, along with a cameraman. Mr Thomas said she had organised a similar trip for students a year earlier and the latest visit would have gone ahead even if Panorama had not been involved.

'Student welfare' Mr Thomas acknowledged the students had initially been told there was one journalist but that, when they were in Beijing before flying into Pyongyang, they were told there would be three journalists. He said three of the students had since asked "that their images be taken out" and that they would be "pixelated or blobbed". Sir Peter Sutherland, chairman of the LSE's board of governors, said the programme created "unacceptable risks" for the school's reputation and the students involved. "The BBC unscrupulously used a number of students as human cover for a filming operation without fully informing all of them what was happening," he said. "If academics cannot go to any part of the world on the basis of trust in terms of what they say they are doing and what they are about, this undermines the integrity of the institution." Panorama reporter John Sweeney said the majority of the students he had travelled with supported the programme. "What the LSE is saying we dispute," he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme. Are you a student at LSE? Did you go on the trip? Have you travelled to North Korea on another trip organised for students? Send us your thoughts and experiences using the form below. Your contact details

Question: With which University did a Panorama reporter travel to North Korea to make an undercover film?
Answer: LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS